1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a service providing device, program, method and system. Particularly, the present invention relates to a service providing device, program, method and system for processing a service upon receipt of a processing request for the service, and for transmitting back a processing result of the service to a request source.
2. Description of the Related Art
In providing a Web service, it is conceivable to use a processing result provided by a different Web service. For example, consider the case of providing a Web service to display a transfer guide from a spot corresponding to an inputted current spot name, for example a famous building's name, to a spot corresponding to an inputted destination spot name. Hereinafter, such a Web service will be referred to as between-spot transfer guide service. In this case, the between-spot transfer guide service can be provided by using processing results of the following: (i) a Web service, hereinafter referred to as address search service, to search for an address with a spot name; (ii) a Web service, hereinafter referred to as nearest station search service, to search for the nearest station with an address; and (iii) a Web service, hereinafter referred to as transfer guide service, to compute transfer guide information from two stations' names.
Known Web services charge money or the like as a usage fee for the Web service. The use of such a Web service requires paying money or the like and thus a Web service using a processing result of a different Web service of that kind can be provided by paying for the different Web service. For example, assume that the usage fee for the address search is 1 yen per service, the usage fee for the nearest station search service is 1 yen per service, and the usage fee for the transfer guide service is 2 yen per service. In this case, the provider of the between-spot transfer guide service using these services needs to receive a usage fee of not less than 4 yen per service from users of the between-spot transfer guide service. Alternatively, the provider of the between-spot transfer guide service may receive an advertisement fee of not less than 4 yen per service from an advertiser and provide the between-spot transfer guide service to its users for free while simultaneously presenting advertising information.
However, collecting small charges is troublesome. Moreover, the use of such a Web service that charges money is inconvenient since the Web service of this kind requires pre-registration or the like from users. In addition, just the fact that a service charges money or the like sometimes discourages the use of the service. See M. Rappa, “Business Models on the Web,” [online], [searched on Jun. 16, 2008], the Internet <URL: http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html>, for example.
Meanwhile, another known Web service is provided to users for free by displaying an advertisement on part of the Web page. In some cases, a Web service displays on part of a Web page, or the like, a terms of use agreement for a processing result of the service so as to set limits on the use of the processing result of the service.
However, if a Web service is provided by using a processing result of a different Web service of that kind, an advertisement and a terms of use agreement on a Web page provided by the used Web service is not displayed on a Web page provided by the user Web service. Thus, in that case, the provider of the used Web service cannot obtain an appropriate benefit and a processing result of the service may be used in a way that the provider does not desire.
In view of the aforementioned circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a service providing device, program, method and system capable of solving the above problems. The object is achieved through the combination of the features described in the following specification and the claims.